Titanium alloys offer high tensile strength over a broad temperature range, yet are relatively light weight. Furthermore, titanium alloys are resistant to corrosion. Therefore, titanium alloys are used in various demanding applications, such as aircraft components, medical devices and the like.
Plastic forming of titanium alloys is a costly process. The tooling required for plastic forming of titanium alloys must be capable of withstanding heavy loads during deformation. Therefore, the tooling for plastic forming of titanium alloys is expensive to manufacture and difficult to maintain due to high wear rates. Furthermore, it can be difficult to obtain complex geometries when plastic forming titanium alloys. Therefore, substantial additional machining is often required to achieve the desired shape of the final product, thereby further increasing costs.
Casting is a common alternative for obtaining titanium alloy products having more complex shapes. However, casting of titanium alloys is complicated by the high melting temperatures of titanium alloys, as well as the excessive reactivity of molten titanium alloys with mold materials and ambient oxygen.
Accordingly, titanium alloys are some of the most difficult metals to be processed in a cost-effective manner. Therefore, those skilled in the art continue with research and development efforts in the field of titanium alloys.